


In another life

by Kyoupann



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Hurt and comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Lots of regrets, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Possible Character Death, but also lots of forgiveness, death mention, just bittersweet tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23934505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyoupann/pseuds/Kyoupann
Summary: Wild suffers a long flashback, and when he is finally back, opens up about his position on the old him.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 204





	In another life

**Author's Note:**

> first time writing Wild and oh, boy, this was a ride.

They had been travelling for three days without proper rest. They were back in Twilight’s Hyrule; a portal landed them somewhere deep in the woods.

“Are you positive this is your time?”

Twilight looked around, paying attention to the trees around them, “definitely.”

Twilight had assumed the lead, guiding them through the dark forest, it was obvious that night was closing in. That meant they had to set a camp soon before all light was gone. He noticed a familiar spot; just a few meters East and they would reach a cave if he didn’t remember wrong.

“You sure you know where we going?” Wind whined from the back of the line.

Twilight only gave a thumbs up in the air before elaborating shortly, “I used to come here with my mentor to look for wild animals that threatened the village. Then, during my adventure, I spent weeks lost in these woods, had to find my way out somehow.”

It was twenty minutes later that they reached the cave. “It’s better that we rest for the night. This area gets too dangerous at night, and while it would be no problem for the nine of us, I believe y’all would want to rest now if we wanna make it out of the province by tomorrow’s dusk.”

No one refuted. After all, it was his Hyrule. He knew what the best approach was.

They installed themselves a couple of meters from the entrance of the cave. Legend and Hyrule went to search for wood to start a fire. The rest set up their bedrolls. Twilight helped Wild set the place where the fire would be. Their armours and chainmail were discarded for the rest of the night; there was no use for them.

An hour later, they were all set in.

Wind was telling a story from one of his sailings with the pirates. Hyrule, Sky and Warriors listened attentively, while the others were doing something at the same time. Legend, although it seemed he was paying more attention to the book on his hands, laughed at the funny bits in the story. Four requested Time to show him the Biggoron sword and were talking about other blades. Wild was preparing dinner over the fire, laughing loudly at Wind’s story.

“And then, this is the best part,” Wind paused and inhaled deeply in excitement, “ I pushed him off the ship!”

Everyone burst into laughter, even Time had to stop mid-sentence to let out a small chuckle and look at Wind.

“W-why did you do that?” Warriors asked, trying to stop the tears threatening to fall.”

“Hey! You can’t go aro—”

_Clank._

The sound of metal hitting against metal and the smell of something burning got everyone’s attention.

“Wild? Are you okay?!” Wind shouted from the other side of the fire. But he got no response.

It was then, that they realised he was gone once again.

Legend noticed his hand was still over the boiling soup “Shit! Get him away from the fire!!”

Twilight and Four, being the closest to him, got up to his feet and removed him as carefully as possible. Four took over the soup, while Twilight sat with him.

“Cub? Are you okay?” He spoke softly, but like many other times, Wild didn’t even acknowledge him.

“Is he okay?!” Hyrule asked from his spot, “he didn’t burn himself, did he?”

Twilight checked Wild’s hands and forearms, only noticing a small patch of red on his left hand, “just a small burn, do we have bandages? ”

Hyule quickly gathered some scraps of fabric from his bag and helped Twilight bandage the injured hand, "he will be fine."

Silence reigned for a moment; everyone knew that there was no use in trying to get Wild out of his trance, but none of them knew what to really do with him either.

Four sensed the awkwardness of not knowing what to do setting in, “Um, I’m not that good of a cook but I think that whatever Wild was making is ready.” 

“Hell yeah! I’m starving!!” Wind hollered as he jumped up and dashed to Four.

The rest of the heroes also followed suit. Four filled 7 bowls with soup. He got up and walked to Twilight next to Wild.

“Hey, you need to eat.” He offered the bowl.

“Thanks, but I’m fine.” Twilight declined the food without leaving his sight from Wild.

Four sighed. He imagined it would be a lost cause to get him to eat with Wild lost in his mind.

He took the bowl for himself and sat down next to Sky around the bonfire. Conversation emerged as usual, but it did feel weird to see Wild there while not being really _there_ with them. Soon, it was time to sleep. Twilight said that he would not go to sleep until making sure Wild was back and well. Warriors assumed the first watch, with Time having the second. The rest were quick to go to their bed spots and rest.

“If you need help with him, just wake any of us, okay?” Sky proposed before giving his back to the fire.

Two hours had passed since everyone had gone to sleep and Wild was not back. His eyes were still fixed in the dying fire before them. Just when he was about to stand to grab a couple of branches to keep it alive, Warriors tossed some into it.

“Nothing?”

Twilight shook his head and proceeded to stoke up the fire as a distraction. Warriors went back to his position.

Another hour went by and Wild had only moved his head in what seemed to be a reflex, which caused Twilight to almost have a heart attack. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was beginning to worry about how long this was taking, was this normal? He doesn’t remember taking this long in a memory. The longest had been roughly two hours.

“Still nothing?”

He looked away from Wild to see Time standing before them.

“He moved a bit, but yeah”, Twilight sighed and rubbed his temple, “still nothing.”

Time patted Twilight’s shoulder as he passed him by in his way out. Minutes later Warriors came back inside, bid good night and laid down. It was a matter of minutes before he was fully asleep.

Another hour passed.

Wild inhaled deeply and let out a loud sigh.

“Cub!”

Wild looked at him and then to the fire, then to his surroundings; everyone was asleep, the pot he was using rested next to the fire on the ground, he couldn’t see the entrance of the cave, it was really dark outside. The back of his hand itched.

“how… was I out?” Wild asked in a soft whisper.

If Twilight hadn’t been so fixed on him, he doubts he would’ve understood him

“Just long enough to start to scare me,” Twilight stated with worry.

Wild nodded. “Sorry.”

Twilight patted him lightly on the back and gave him a reassuring smile.

“Are you hungry? Here, let me reheat this for you.”

Wild didn’t give him an answer, but he was already stirring the pot in the fire.

Wild observed Twilight as he served the bowl and handed it to him. He murmured a barely audible ‘thanks’ and quietly sipped at the soup. He could tell from the first mouthful that this wasn’t his soup, something else was mixed in, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t something he’s had before.

“I made this?” He asked looking at the half-empty bowl, "what happened to my hand?"

Twilight was confused, did Wild forget what was the last thing he did?

“Technically, you did. “Wild didn’t take his eyes off the bowl, “You left in the middle of making it, you burnt your hand. Four finished making it.”

He looked at his bandaged hand briefly and returned his attention to the bow on his hands.

Ah, it made sense then. Four was the only one out of rest who could not turn his cooking into something unedible.

He finished his bowl and set it aside. He looked again at the pot.

“Are… are you okay?” Twilight asked, not entirely sure if this was a conversation to be opened right now.

Wild only kept his sight on the pot and nodded.

“We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“It’s just frustrating.” Was all he said as he brought his hands to his face.

Twilight gave him a moment to collect his thoughts before asking “Did you remember anything?”

“Something? But feels more like nothing.” He lightly hit his forehead with both hands. “I can’t connect these memories anymore. They don’t make sense with who I am now. I get these flashbacks and it’s frustrating because…. It’s like seeing someone else, not me. And I don’t understand them.”

Wild looked around and then set his eyes again on the pot and the fire. His hand itched a lot.

“I don’t remember any training. Just constant fights and encounters with monsters and enemies. It feels like I was so much better back then. I could take down squadrons singlehandedly at age 12.” Wild stopped to try to make sense of the next thing he was about to say, “ I don’t recognise the boy in my memories… and that scares me so much.”

Wild fell silent once more and now looked at Twilight directly, “It’s like with every memory I get, I kill Him a bit more.”

“You’re not killing anyone, Cub…”

“The old me,” Wild put simply, “the son, the princess’ appointed knight, the champion. I was once all of that. And I can’t remember any of it. Not enough to bring Him back.”

Wild wanted to remember.

“I wish I could comfort you but,” Twilight shrugged, “I think you’re being too harsh on yourself right now. Forgetting is not your fault.”

Wild wanted to remember Him. He wanted to know who He was. It was the last he could do.

“It’s not my fault, but it was Him who got me here in the first place, you know? I owe Him that”

Twilight looked at him with apparent confusion; this was taking a rather odd turn. It wasn’t unusual for Wild to talk about his old self as someone completely different from himself. But now, he knew Wild had something else in mind.

“I never told you before, but I did talk to Zelda about my memories. She told me about all our time together, preparing for the Calamity… and nothing she said resonated with me.” Wild chuckled at the thought, “they didn’t really know how the resurrection actually worked then, I think.” He looked directly at Twilight for the first time.” She confessed that there was the possibility that the _me_ of 100 years ago had actually died, his soul departed, and mine entered into this body.” He inhaled deeply and slowly let all the air out. “There’s the possibility that we really were different people.”

Wild turned his head away and said, “I can’t be Him again. I’ve accepted it and moved on. But I do want to remember Him. Even if He failed 100 years ago, He was still a hero.”

The fire was starting to die out again, but neither seemed to want to keep it going anymore. A few more minutes and all that would be left would be ashes.

“I’ve been wondering, is it possible to mourn the death of someone I never knew?”

He was still talking about himself.

“I just… hope that He found rest, after all the burden of being a hero.”

Twilight could sympathise with that, for he too hoped for the rest of a certain hero from his time.

“It’s noble of you to wish that, Cub.” He smiled bitterly. “If what your Zelda said it’s true, I’m sure his soul is at peace in the Sacred Realm.”

Wild would like to think that too. He couldn’t bear to think of the regret and shame a soul with unfinished business would suffer for eternity if he didn’t get it done; one bearing the spirit of the hero at that. He had spent most of his time alive being jealous and bitter towards his old self for being a gifted kid, while he had to train and train, and bleed and bleed again just to be worthy of touching the Master Sword. He still remembers the burning sensation in his hands and how it almost killed him not but too many times for him to ever forget it. He rubbed the back of his injured hand at the memory, his skin felt almost numb now.

“I just hope that, if He is granted the chance to redeem himself…” he spoke with resignation in his voice, in a whisper low enough for Twilight to know he was saying something, “that he finds happiness in another life.”

He smiled at the thought of Him finally content.

Wild sighed and watched the bright ashes burning, “I’m tired.”

Twilight got up from his spot and offered him a hand. “C’mon, let’s sleep.”

They got into their bedrolls, bid each other good night even though they knew sleep would not come soon regardless of exhaustion.

Twilight fixed his eyes on the rock ceiling, listening to the soft snores of the others.

Wild kept his on the last hints of fire dying until darkness engulfed them and he couldn’t see more.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a gift for Tony on the discord server for the April exchange.   
> She said she wanted something that explored Wild's past, and while I haven't yet played Botw, I had lots of fun trying to figure this out without making it similar to the rest of fics of this nature. I hope you like it, pal <3


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